California's Automatic Renewal Law: Your Subscription Rights

California's Automatic Renewal Law (ARL) is codified at Business and Professions Code sections 17600 through 17606. It took effect in December 2010 and has been amended several times since. The Legislature stated its intent plainly: "to end the practice of ongoing charging of consumer credit or debit cards or third party payment accounts without the consumers' explicit consent for ongoing shipments of a product or ongoing deliveries of service."

The law applies broadly to businesses that offer automatic renewals or continuous services to California consumers — monthly and annual subscriptions, memberships, boxes, streaming and software plans, and trials that convert to paid plans if you do not cancel. It governs how those offers are presented, how consent is captured, and how you are allowed to cancel.

The most significant recent change is Assembly Bill 2863, signed September 24, 2024, with its core provisions effective July 1, 2025. Those amendments apply to contracts entered into, amended, or extended on or after that date. This page is general information about how the ARL works, not legal advice; for a specific situation, consult a licensed attorney or the official sources cited below.

Before charging you, a business must present the automatic renewal or continuous service terms "in a clear and conspicuous manner" and in "visual proximity" to the consent request (or temporal proximity for voice offers). The terms cannot be buried in fine print or hidden behind extra links.

The business must obtain your affirmative consent to the agreement containing those terms — a pre-checked box or ambiguous acceptance does not satisfy the law. After you sign up, it must give you an acknowledgment that includes the renewal terms, the cancellation policy, and information on how to cancel.

Cancellation must be easy. The law requires a "cost-effective, timely, and easy-to-use" mechanism, such as a toll-free telephone number, an email address, or a postal address. Critically, if you accepted the offer online, you must be able to terminate the subscription "exclusively online, at will, and without engaging any further steps that obstruct or delay" the cancellation. In other words, a business cannot force you to call, chat, or mail a letter to end a subscription you started online.

Click-to-cancel: A business must let you cancel through the same medium you used to sign up. For online sign-ups, that means a prominently located direct link or button, or an immediately accessible termination email. During cancellation, a business may show a retention or discount offer, but only if a direct "cancel" option remains "continuously and proximately displayed" — sometimes called the "one save" rule.

Reminders: The amended law requires businesses to send you reminders, including an annual reminder, delivered through the medium used to activate the subscription or one you customarily use. Each reminder must identify the product or service, the frequency and amount of the charges, and how to cancel.

Notice windows: For automatic renewals with terms of one year or longer, the business must send renewal notice at least 15 days but no more than 45 days before the renewal date, stating the renewal terms, charges, and how to cancel. Separately, before a price change takes effect, the business must give notice no less than 7 days and no more than 30 days in advance, along with cancellation information.

Consent records and trials: Businesses must obtain your express affirmative consent and keep verification of it for at least three years, or one year after the contract ends, whichever is longer. The amendments also formally define a "free-to-pay conversion" — a trial that begins at no cost and creates a payment obligation unless you cancel before it expires — bringing such trials squarely within the law.

The ARL carries a notable remedy. Under Business and Professions Code section 17603, when a business ships goods or products in violation of the law, those items "shall for all purposes be deemed an unconditional gift to the consumer." You may use or dispose of them as you see fit, with no obligation to pay and no responsibility for the cost of shipping anything back.

Enforcement is handled by public officials — the California Attorney General, along with district attorneys, county counsel, city attorneys, and city prosecutors statewide. They typically bring cases through California's Unfair Competition Law (Business and Professions Code section 17200), which treats an ARL violation as an unlawful business practice. Public prosecutors can seek restitution, injunctions, and civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation.

California appellate courts (for example, Mayron v. Google, 2020) have held that the ARL itself does not create a private right of action, so individual consumers generally pursue relief through the Unfair Competition Law and must show economic injury to have standing. Because these enforcement questions are fact-specific and continue to evolve through litigation, consider consulting an attorney about your circumstances.

If you believe a subscription violated your rights, you can file a complaint with the California Attorney General's office at oag.ca.gov/report. Keep records of your sign-up screens, confirmation emails, cancellation attempts, and billing statements, which help document what a business disclosed and when.

California's ARL is a state law that stands on its own. It sits alongside federal protections such as the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA), which also requires clear disclosure and affirmative consent for online negative-option offers.

The Federal Trade Commission's separate "click-to-cancel" Negative Option Rule was vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on July 8, 2025 (Custom Communications, Inc. v. FTC) on procedural grounds, days before it was set to take effect. That federal rule is not currently in force, but ROSCA and state statutes remain, and California's amended ARL continues to apply.

The practical takeaway: even with the federal rule struck down, California consumers retain strong, enforceable protections around how subscriptions are sold, renewed, and canceled. This overview is general information current as of July 2026 and is not legal advice; verify current requirements against the primary sources below before relying on them.